Beyond the Darkness
by Nharia
Summary: Just a little something that I'd started writing way back when the whole ReTake movement was going down. Takes the last bits of the Vanilla game then its my own story from there. Credit for the name goes to my friend inderdunkelheit Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, nor do I own the setting, They are soley the property of Bioware/EA.
1. Chapter 1: Shepard's Awakening

_As she continued to fire round after round from her pistol, she continued to move forwards, her desire to see the beings that would, given the chance, turn the entire Galactic population into primordial sludge, and have them become a Reaper. She wouldn't allow that to happen, she swore to herself as she stepped into the blast of fire and shrapnel._

_The Crucible began to pulse with a reddish-orange light, that steadily began to grow until it enveloped the entire Citadel, then began to spread through the space around the station and pulse reached London before it hit any of the Reapers in space, and it shut them down, as they stopped moving they began to fall over onto their sides. The ground forces started to cheer, they were victorious. As it touched the Reapers in orbit, they began to shut down, one by one, and stop fighting._

_The red pulse gathered in on itself, and fired straight at the Sol relay, which fired to the Arcturus, and then on and it continued to chain throughout the Mass relay network. As soon as the beam had fired from the Crucible, it began to self destruct with the massive influx of energy and power to one focused point. As the beam hit the Sol relay, Jeff "Joker" Moreau was already headed out of the Sol system, making for Arcturis, and some other relay beyond that one. As the pulse catches up with the SR-2 Normandy, Joker hands move in a blur of motion, trying to maintain his current bearing, despite the jolting and rattling of the ship. "Come on baby, hold together." He mutters under his breath as the thrusters on the Normandy became engulfed in the pulse of red light. The starboard thrusters blew out, causing alarms to blare on the ship, which Joker ignored as they suddenly dropped out of the jump._

_The Normandy lay upon a rocky outcropping that was surrounded by trees and grass, untouched by the Reapers, almost as if no one had ever found the planet. The Normandy's hatch on its port side slid open, and Joker stepped out, raising a hand to block the sunlight that streamed down and temporarily blinded him. He stepped down off the ship and looked around him, grinning, glad to be alive. Liara T'soni and Garrus followed Joker out fo the Normandy, both of them happy to be alive, as they looked around them at the enviroment._

Shepard's chest swelled as she breathed in deeply, coughed and slowly opened her eyes, everything around her was a blur, her vision still not back despite having been knocked unconscious for a minute, the beam from Harbinger had thrown her away from the beam up to the Citadel, that much she could make out. Suddenly she saw a blue face appear before her and distantly heard her name being called, several times, before she shook her head and reached up with a bloodied hand.

Liara stared down at Shepard, anxious that at first she gave no sign of life, then she saw her had stir and breathed easier, only slightly though, Shepard was a dreadful sight, her N7 armor almost completely blasted off. The chest plate that protected her upper torso was more intact than the rest of her armor, for which Liara was thankful. Looking over at the Turian that was knelt on Shepard's left, Liara spoke softly to both of them saying, "Alright Garrus, we have to move her from here. Just hold still Jen, it won't be long and you'll be back on your feet. okay. Just hold still while we get some of this rubble moved. Grunt can you come over and move this cement from her legs!" She called over to the young krogan that was blasting the incoming Reaper forces with his Graal shotgun, and huge grin plastered across his face, his armor literally dripping in blood and pieces of Reaper forces that he had torn apart.

Shepard eyes focused and she looked down at her legs, where Grunt was already shifting a large cement slab that had somehow fallen across her legs at such an angle as to only trap them underneath without doing any more damage than had already been done to her body. 'Speaking of my body... Okay I'm not missing anything, that's a start, but it feels like I've broken at least one rib, maybe two, and I know my right hand is broken.' She thought to herself. Looking over at the Asari standing protectively over her, she smiled and knew that Liara had seen her glance her way when she looked down at Shepard and said softly, "It'll be alright we'll have you out of there in a moment."

Grunt pulled the final piece of cement away from Shepard and let Liara past him, as she got on her loves right side, motioning Garrus to take her left. They pulled her upright, letting Shepard lean against them as Anderson came over looking Shepard up and down, saying, "Looks like you made it to the foot of the beam Commander."

"Yeah I guess I did Anderson, what do you want me to do now sir?" She asks, groggily, still not quite back up to speed with everything around her. She shakes her head and blinks several times then straightens up, only to bend over grimacing in pain and saying, "If you've got any medigel handy I could use some right now, since I've got at least a broken wrist." She nodded towards her wrist, which is hanging limply over Liara's shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2: The Fight for the Beam

Anderson looked at Shepard, not really standing before him, more, being held before him by her two friends. He grabbed a passing medic saying, "Take care of the Commander."

"Sir." The medic said and turned to Shepard saying,"Alright Commander, where are you... ah the wrist, well I can give you some medigel, to help with the pain, and all the bleeding, but there's not much I can do about a broken wrist, at least not on the field." The medic said to Shepard, as he began to apply a layer of medi gel to her wrist, then she knelt and applied a layer to her torso, where blood was slowly dripping from Shepard's left side.

Shepard winced as she felt pressure being applied to her chest, and tried not to move too much, to let the medic go about his work in  
relative peace. 'Well as much peace can be had in the middle of a war.' Shepard thought to herself, nodding her thanks to the medic as he moved off to check on the other injuries. Shepard looked at Anderson and asked, "Sir, what's going on, have we gotten anyone up onto the Citadel yet?"

Shaking his head, Anderson looked out from where the group were hidden from the worst of the fighting. He sighed and said, "Every time we try for the beam, we lose more men. Harbinger itself is blocking our way. If we could somehow entice it away from the beam just long enough for even a small squad to make it on, that might be enough, we've been getting reports that there may still be survivors on the Citadel."

Wrex stomped up just then, he like Grunt, was covered in gore, "We could get you there Shepard." He said and motioned for the clans that were following him to more forwards and start to press towards the beam. As the krogans moved past him, Wrex looked at Shepard and said, "Lets give them a kick in the quad they won't ever forget!"

Grunt looked over his shoulder at Shepard, grinned at her and followed his clan leader, pulling the Graal from his back and reloading before he charged into the fray, bowling three husks over as he smashed into a brute. The two wrestled, rolling over and over on the ground. Soon Grunt was on top of the Brutes back, his shotgun placed against the back of its head. A single pull of the trigger, and he was splattered with the blood and brains of the brute.

The Krogans around and about Grunt were doing equally amazing feats of strength, none of which Shepard saw, as she was carried along towards the beam, and the Citadel. From off to the small group's left, a wailing sound came, and soon a Banshee was slowly walking, floating over the debris, making for Shepard and her party. A loud bang, and its barriers were dropped, then the chatter of an assault rifle, the Banshee staggered, from behind it came reinforcements in the form of Ashley Williams and James Vega. The Banshee turned on them, and unleashed a biotic pulse, that when it hit them drained their shields. It biotically charged to where they were, reached for  
Ashley, only to have a N7- Crusader shoved into its open mouth. The blast from the gun, literally shredded the Banshee's lower jaw. "Just go Commander! Don't worry about us!" James shouted to Shepard as she turned, almost as if she were about to go back and help them.

"Come on, Jen, they said they'll be fine." Liara said to Shepard, as she half carried half dragged her along. She knew that Shepard's sense of duty would most likely keep her here, where the fighting was, but that wasn't where she would be of any use at the moment. Garrus just kept Shepard moving towards their objective.

They were soon walking into the light and they all disappeared from the vision of both the ground forces and the people right next to them.  
Next moment, they were on the Citadel, in fact they were standing in the Zakeara Wards. The dim lights of fires burning shed some light on the area around them, bodies lying in the streets, and not just the remains of civilians, but also of Reaper forces that must have invaded around the time the Illusive Man had told the Reapers that the Caytalyst for the Cruible was the Citadel.

Shepard slumped in the arms of her friends, so they gently hauled her over to a bench, while Anderson tried to raise anyone who was still alive over his radio. Soon a reply came back, "Ah, shit. hello? Anderson? Admiral its Commander Bailey, with C-Sec. I've got one hell  
of a problem on my hands and I hope to hell you've got some good news for me sir." the voice said.

"Bailey! We've got to get the arms of the Citadel open, so Admiral Hackett can dock the Crucible. We used that beam that the Reapers have set up in between the Citadel and London to get aboard. We've ended up in the Zakera Wards, level... 26. We've got Commander Shepard with us, but she's in no great shape to fight."

"We're at C-Sec Headquarters, we could have a shuttle out to you in minutes, but it'll be a dangerous ride for both you and the officer." Bailey said over the radio.

"Negative on the evac, we can make it on foot. We'll keep you posted, Anderson out." He said, and looked back to Shepard and her squad, who were letting her rest. She looked up at him, the fire in her eyes burning with a passion he knew was burning hotter than ever, with the end in sight, he knew he couldn't let her down. Holding out his hand, he took Shepard's left hand, pulled her to her feet, steadied her and said to the three before him, "This is it, this is the final push, and we can finally call it quits. So lets go out there and kick some Reaper ass."

**_Back on Earth_**:

Wrex and Grunt surveyed the killing field around the base of the Reaper object, the ground was choked with the corpses of the dead, and dying from both sides. The Allied forces had pulled back a short ways, so they could catch their collective breath before they charged back into the mass of Reaper forces. Wrex had already killed five Brutes by himself, but not to be outdone by the wily Battlemaster, Grunt had taken down his own share of Brutes as well. They patted the other on on the back, and side by side, they went careening down the slope at the head of a Krogan lead charge, backed by the Turians, with Asari Commando's and Human Marines providing a base of fire, for the Krogans to return to when they need a pause in the battle.

As wave after wave of Reaper forces were smashed to pieces by the Allies, the leaders of the Allied races on the ground realized that Harbinger had not moved once, since it had blasted Commander Shepard,some, like Primarch Victus and Wrex, wanted to throw their forces at the inert Reaper, in hopes of taking out the supposed leader of the Reapers. Others such as Major Kirrahe, and several Asari Commando's were against this idea, as they were unsure what damage, if any they could do to the colossal Reaper. Eventually it was agreed upon to let Wrex take a hand picked squad of just under 100, of the best fighters from every species and attack Harbinger, in the hope to, if not destroy, at least keep it occupied long enough for the Reapers to be destroyed.


	3. Chapter3: The Battles Above and On Earth

_**London: Wrex's team**_

Wrex looked at the group of aliens following him, some of the best in the galaxy, according to the leaders of their respective races. Well there was no shortage of the best, since everyone was now on an equal footing for the task at hand. Wrex raised the Graal he held, and pointed towards the inert Reaper, shouting over the sounds of battle from behind the force, "That's our objective. We take that out, and the Reaper ground forces will be a push over! So let's move!" He started forwards, knowing that if nothing else, the Krogans that he was leading would follow him. He glanced over his shoulder once and saw the entire strike team moving behind him, all grim-faced and determined to be there when the Reaper went down.

Grunt spotted movement off to the left of the strike team, and moved towards it, curious, knowing that if it were a Reaper soldier, he would make short work of it. As he came closer to the spot where he had seen the movement, he heard the harsh shriek of a Banshee and  
knew he was in for an interesting fight.

It was not difficult to find the source of the screeching wails, the pure bred Krogan merely followed the ear shattering noise of the pitiful creature. Suddenly, from his 3 o'clock, a biotic flash, Grunt whirled around and brought his weapon to bear and leveled it in the desired direction. Never had he seen such a creature, though his lip curled in a wicked grin at the thought of a new challenge. Firing a heavy shot at the Banshee the young Krogan closed in as the a second biotic flash went off before him. Grunt's eyes widened at the realization that the Reaper's twisted creature now stood in front of him. A second shot from the Graal roared, the Krogan super soldier finding out that the Banshee was enforced by a barrier. Growling in frustration he took a step back to unleash yet another round from his  
fierce shotgun.

Unfortunately a second lesson was taught to him the hard way, as lesson learned in the gesture of a waved hand. The space between the combatants fluctuated in the shape of a sailing orb. Grunt eyes this orb with a glare of mistrust and moved to avoid it only to catch it off center to the chest. The shoulder on the side he had been struck was forced to recoil, jerking back while the mighty Krogan called upon his immense strength to halt any stagger that might follow in the blows wake. Swiftly regaining his composure and noting his lack of time to reload his spent spike thrower he reached for something to use against the Reaper servant. This improvised weapon came in the form of a manhole cover, and with it Grunt made a gesture of his own. The flat alloy circle connected with a violent smash forcing the Banshee to not only recoil, but shift completely to its side. Finding the barrier to be nonexistent the Krogan moved to finish the loathsome abomination.  
"Feel the might of the Krogan!" Cried the pure blood Krogan as he barreled down on to Banshee mercilessly forcing it to the ground among the bodies already strewn about. Bringing forth his Graal once more, a vicious blade protruding from under the muzzle, Grunt forced it through the nape of the howling creature's neck and wrenched it upward. A sickening noise followed at the head was removed and hoisted overhead. Laughing with hearty mirth born of victories combat the young Krogan lobbed the severed head and charged in for more. The one kill, no matter how satisfying, was unable to quench the flames of his ignited rage.

The column of warriors had halted at the first sounds of Grunts battle, and had gone back to check on the young Krogan to see if he needed any help, when they saw the fight was over and Grunt was standing there with the head of a Banshee that he had literally ripped from the body, they started to cheer him. Soon however they remembered what they had set out to do and once again began to move for Harbinger.

**_The Citadel: Zakera Wards, Level 27_**

Shepard coughed, and looked at the two carrying her, then sighed and said to her three friends, "I'm... fine now, just tired... I can stand on my own I think..." She struggled to stand erect, but slumped into a partial crouch, which was more than she had previously been able to manage. Liara looked at her with a worried expression, which Jen tried to soothe with a weak, pained smile, which caused Liara's worry to only increase. Shepard placed a hand on her shoulder and said in a whisper to Liara, "I'm alright, I've got to be, at least once we get to C-Sec headquarters, and this isn't the time to worry Dr. I need you to be strong for me, and for everyone else who's lives are riding on us." Stepping back, Jen looked around the group and said to them, "I'd feel a hell of a lot safer if I had a gun of some kind." Garrus pulled out a Phalanx and said to her, "I picked this up when we found you, I think it's yours, since its modded."

"Thanks Garrus, let's get a move on, I think I can hear something coming this way." Shepard said as she took the gun. Looking to the stairs at the opposite end of the level from them, there were dim shadowy figures emerging from the stairs and headed their way, and they didn't look friendly. They spread out and crouched down behind various piles of bodies. Liara and Shepard hid behind the same pile, and were able to hold a swift conversation before they fell silent and waited for the shapes to come closer and make themselves known.

Soon enough the shapes were visible, but not what the party had fist expected, instead of Reaper forces, there were Cerberus troops coming towards them. Shepard gripped the Phalanx tight in her left hand and stood up from cover and fired three shots at the leading Trooper, all three shots hit the man's head, causing him to crumple to the ground dead. Next moment the sound of shots could be heard throughout the Level, as the Cerberus troopers returned fire, and Shepard's companions ducked out from cover fired off a few rounds and hid again. It soon boiled down into a standoff, with the Cerberus troopers hiding behind piles of bodies as well.

Liara looked at Shepard who nodded, and sprang up right and began to fire her Phalanx, along with Anderson shooting with his M-8 Avenger, and Garrus firing a Revenant. With cover fire being laid down for her, Liara moved forwards and then threw a Singularity at the area behind where the Cerberus troops were hidden. As soon as it sprang into existence, the Singularity began to pull the Troopers from hiding and into the air.

Moving forwards, Shepard's group easily dispatched the floating Troopers, and turned towards the Shuttle platform, so they could find a Shuttle that could fly them to C-Sec. They were in luck, a C-Sec shuttle was parked at the end of the platform, with the C-Sec officer lying face down in a pool of his own blood. Shepard slid into the back of the car, along with Liara, while Anderson took the front passengers seat  
and Garrus took the controls.

As soon as they were in the air, Liara began to fuss over Shepard, who had almost been hit by a round from the Cerberus troopers. Shepard  
tried to push her away, but wasn't trying very hard, she secretly enjoyed the attention of the beautiful Asari. Liara pulled a med kit from the back of the patrol car and began to bind Shepard's right wrist and her side.

In the front of the shuttle, Anderson was already in contact with Bailey, saying, "Bailey, we're heading to C-Sec in a patrol shuttle, don't fire on us, we're about 2 minutes out."  
"Yes sir, Admiral. I thought you guys might have trouble on the ground, damn Cerberus..." Bailey said, and chuckled slightly, before continuing, "Figures they'd show up again, just when everything couldn't get worse, they have to show up and try to take over, again."  
"Yeah, from what Shepard reports, The Illusive Man is actually working for the Reapers now, the bastard. Anderson out."

Two minutes later, or close to it, the shuttle landed at C-Sec headquarters, where a number of regular civilians armed with guns stood along with mercenaries, and C-Sec officers, all of them hoping to catch a glimpse of Commander Shepard. Breathing in deeply, Shepard got out of the shuttle to a quiet crowd. She waved to them and walked towards the door into the headquarters where Bailey stood with the Council, waiting for them.


	4. Chapter 4

_**The Citadel: C-Sec Headquarters**_

The Councilors stood around a table waiting for Shepard to come out of the C-Sec Med bay, where she was being treated for her wounds. Only twenty minutes after having gone in, Shepard walked back out, her steps marked by a slight limp, but beyond that, there was no trace of an injury on her body.

She nodded to Liara and Garrus who were standing on either side of the exit, then looked to the Councilor's. "What's the situation?" She asked in a harsher tone than she meant, which mattered little, this wasn't the time for diplomacy anyway. Councilor Tevos spoke, "Cerberus seems to be working with the Reapers, they've taken control of the Presidium, and are slowly pushing back C-Sec and Militia forces from the Wards."

Councilor Sparatus interjected, "Shepard their headquarters is the Presidium Tower, and we believe the Crucible controls will be located there."

Nodding slightly, Shepard asked the two councilors, "Where is Councilor Valern, shouldn't he be here as well?" She looked at their downcast faces, and said, "He died so others could live, namely the two of you didn't he..?" They nodded, and she sighed, then continued laying out the information. "Right now we need to focus our attention on Cerberus. Is there some way I can get to the Council Hall without having to go through an army of troopers? No? Then it looks like we're doing this thing the old fashioned way." So saying she picked up the replacement armor that had been cobbled together for her by the C-Sec and Spectre Requisition's Officers. Slipping into the armor she rolled her shoulders, letting the armor adjust to her body, then she picked up the Sniper Rifle, put it into the holding slot on her back and slid the pistol into the 'holster' at her hip. Then she grabbed her M-7 Lancer and slid that into its holder on her back as well.

Liara and Garrus straightened up and moved to Shepard's side when she made for the door, when all three were stopped by Commander Armando Bailey, asking Shepard, "What do we do?"

"Cause as much havoc as you can until I can cut them off from their command. That will most likely be the Illusive Man, since he wasn't at Cronos Station when we raided it," she said and left the Medical wing of C-Sec. As she walked out of the room Bailey was already speaking into his Omni-tool, preparing the Militia and C-Sec Squads for the diversionary attack upon the Presidium and Cerberus.

Shepard and her squad made their way for docking area, where they had 'parked' the C-Sec shuttle, and climbing in Shepard powered on the vehicle and took off, racing towards the Presidium. All around her there were other shuttles taking off. She wove in and out of the massive scrambling of all the units, and was soon clear and away from them.

As they sped towards the Presidium, Garrus popped the window open and aimed down the sights of his Widow at a Phantom that was just standing listening to orders. Quickly he shot a round at its head and reloaded. Then he aimed at a Cerberus Centurion, fired and looked up at Shepard in the mirror, saying, "What? We might as well make it easier for the ground troops to do a diversion, plus I've got nothing to do and they were just standing in the way of my shots."  
"Next time you do that Garrus, do you think you could warn me before hand?" Shepard replied as she dodged the hail of fire that was directed at them. Liara pointed to a small building that was surrounded by Cerberus troopers.  
"Roger that Shepard. But I'm not sure there will be a next t-… Atlas! Shepard go left!" Garrus yelled as he was looking out the open door.  
"I can't I'll ram us into a wall!" Shepard yelled back, weaving back and forth in the air. She knew that they were in the Atlas's sights, and there wasn't much that she could do. "Garrus shut the door. We're in for a rough landing."

The Atlas fired its main cannon and the rocket slammed into the shuttles engine, the massive explosion rocked the shuttle and the whole cabin was lit with a red warning lights from the dash board. The steering in the shuttle was working, barely. Shepard aimed the shuttle at a nearby open pavilion. She yelled at the others, "Get out, NOW!"

Garrus jumped out first, followed closely by Liara, and last of all by Shepard. Not two seconds after Shepard had jumped out, the shuttle slammed into the ground only a meter from where they had landed.

* * *

**_Earth: London, Wrex's Team_**

Wrex chambered a round and then slammed the muzzle of his Graal into the side of husks head, before squeezing the trigger. He felt the 'blood' splash his feet and growled in satisfaction with the thought that yet another reaperfied creature had died. He turned to his group of soldiers and warriors, and growled out, "Alright you baby pyjaks, we've got a job to do and that's to kill this Reaper." He gestured towards Harbinger with his free right hand, his left gripping the Graal tightly.

The entire force turned en-masse and looked at Harbinger. The presumed leader of all the Reaper forces, the first Reaper, was still dormant. Whatever had happened, had apparently knocked it out. The group turned back to Wrex as he began to subdivide the force force of 100, into five groups of 20 each.

Each team was well balanced, with four from each race, Asari, Krogan, Turian, Salarian, and Human, everyone of them with a different specialization in their field of expertise. They were to all converge on the downed Reaper after coming at it from different directions, so as to save the entire force from being overwhelmed and destroyed.

Wrex had taken charge of his force, leading them around a crashed A-61 Mantis. As they passed by there was a sharp cracking sound from behind as a Brute smashed through the wreckage and charged into the group. Their reaction was swift and overwhelming, for they soon overpowered the Brute and were moving again. As they rounded another wrecked vehicle they found themselves facing a mass of Reaper forces that had yet to take part in the fighting. The force arrayed before them consisted mainly of Brutes and Mauraders with other types including a couple of Harvesters. Wrex paused for a moment to consider the fight that lay before him, then he charged in, bellowing his warcry.


End file.
